There Will Be A Football Scene In The Dark Knight Rises

Alexandra Kuczynski-Brown

1:57 pm, August 9th, 2011

As of a week ago, filming of Christopher Nolan‘s much-anticipated third Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises is officially underway in Pittsburgh. For the first time since the revamped franchise debuted in 2005, the Steel City will have the honor of representing fictional Gotham.

And on Saturday, 10,000 unpaid extras shed their allegiance to the Pittsburgh Steelers and instead packed Heinz Field to cheer on the Gotham Rogues as they took on the rival Rapid City Monuments. The black-and-yellow-clad fans didn’t have to feel all that guilty about jumping ship, though, as not only do the Rogues boast the same colors as the Steelers, but the teams also share a few of the same players — namely Ben Roethlisberger and Hines Ward. Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl also got in on the action, portraying a kicker on the opposing team.

According to reports, the scene itself involves a cold weather football game that gets interrupted by a series of massive explosions.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the film’s “special effects team got the explosives set, and about 60 bombs went off, seeming to blow a gaping hole in the field.”

The extras, who were compensated with free stadium food and the opportunity to win tickets to the premiere, were instructed to scream and run away in terror from the destruction.

Here’s a preview of what you have to look forward to come July 20, 2012: